The Gameboy Color edition didn't come out until 1999, this is true. Even if Nintendo stopped selling SNES games the same year they published the last new title, this is still a gap of less than a year. Comparable to the gap that used to exist between a movie coming out in the theater and being released on VHS.

2008: No new IP. I thought Endless Ocean was, but upon closer inspection, it is neither a Nintendo IP, nor is it original, it's a sequel. Maybe you could count Wii Fit?

2007:

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - I'm not sure who owns the IP for this one. But Nintendo has the publishing rights and I really enjoyed it. They did a follow-up too. Reminds me of the old games like Shadowgate and Deja Vu.

Geist - Not sure if Nintendo owns this or not. They co-developed it with n-Space and Miyamoto himself was involved. I own it and the concept is great, but the execution is often silly. This is the kind of title they could revisit, polish more and turn into something special.

I skipped a lot of fun games that are spinoff IPs. For instance, Super Princess Peach, Warioware, Luigi's Mansion, and Mario Kart can all be considered spinoffs of the Mario series. Even if the game play is new and unique.

I'm totally with you on Spirit Tracks, by the way. That should not have been a Zelda game.

Posted
by
Soulskillon Friday May 03, 2013 @09:34AM
from the give-me-what-i-paid-for dept.

jrepin writes "Digital restrictions management (DRM) creates damaged goods that users cannot control or use freely. It requires users to give-up control of their computers and restricts access to digital data and media. Device manufacturers and corporate copyrights holders have already been massively infecting their products with user-hostile DRM. Tablets, mobile phones and other minicomputers are sold with numerous restrictions embedded that cripple users freedom. The proposal at table in W3C to put DRM into HTML goes even further. Fight it: use today's today is international Day Against DRM, so spread the word and make yourself heard!"
The EFF suggests making every day a day against DRM.

This is 2013. Some people are stupid, yes. But information often gets out there even to stupid people. We live in a world where people think all kinds of things about "hackers" and identity theft, etc. They may not have a deep understanding, but they know that 20/20 did a story on it, so they should be afraid of... whatever. "Hackers".

Anecdotaly, excluding my own network, there are 14 networks within range of me as I type this from my home. All of them are secured with (mostly WPA, 1 WEP) and there is one Open "guest" network (with an identical name to one of the secure networks), which presumably is open by design, but has restrictions when connected.

Granted, only 5 of these networks have names that were obviously user-selected. So perhaps some of these networks were set up by the ISP, or the devices shipped with security on by default. But regardless, I see more secure networks than I do open ones today.

Who cares if the user selected it or not? As long as the password is unique and it works for them. They don't need to know unless they have a reason to. If the ISP or the device manufacturer has figured out a scheme to get them secured without a major hassle, it's a win-win. Those who care to know more will go out and learn more.

For what it's worth, I live in central New Jersey. Maybe things are radically different in Scranton, PA or Las Vegas or the suburbs of Atlanta, but I kind of have my doubts.

Posted
by
timothyon Thursday April 04, 2013 @09:49AM
from the proclaimers-need-to-up-their-game-a-bit dept.

cylonlover writes with this tantalizing excerpt from GizMag "Israel-based company Phinergy claims to have developed metal-air battery technology that promises to end the range anxiety associated with electric vehicles. The company's battery currently consists of 50 aluminum plates, each providing energy for around 20 miles (32 km) of driving. This adds up to a total potential range of 1,000 miles (1,609 km), with stops required only every couple of hundred miles to refill the system with water."

I get why that could be a problem with a PC. After all, it's not unusual to file one's taxes on one's PC, or have other records that might include one's SSN on a PC. But who the hell is doing anything like via a phone?

While I agree with you in principal (the ability to run whatever I wish is one of the reasons I use Android and avoid iOS myself), in practice, what you describe is the same on both platforms.

If I'm selling a commercial app, even on Android, the built-in store is more or less the only avenue to making money. Google's store has rules just like Apple's does.

Sure I can sell through Amazon or some of the other third parties instead. But this obviously greatly diminishes my potential market (and they will likely have similar rules too). What percent of Android users ever install a third party store? What percent are even aware they can do so?

If you're talking about commercially selling software to sideload, the problem is even worse. Most users have no idea this is possible. So in effect, if you're investing a lot of money into a project and Google says "no", the results aren't much different from Apple saying "no".

The videos are amazing, thanks the the widespread practice in Russia of using dashboard cameras, and of course the widespread prevalence of smart phones and security cameras. "Bad Astronomer" Phil Plait thinks that the timing is just coincidental to the near-pass of asteroid 2012 DA14 today, but of course many are speculating on a possible connection.

Regarding the accessory socket: Depends on the car. And some cars give you the option of behaving in either way.

My CTS actually has a fuse in the fuse box that serves as a jumper between two positions. In the first position, the socket is as you describe that you expect it: On only when the key is in the "run" position. In the other position, the socket is on continuously, only switching off when the key moves to the "start" position (to protect against surges).

The car also has battery rundown protection, but I don't know the details of this. All I know is that it occasionally turns to dome light off when I leave it on the "on" position overnight, presumably when the battery reached a certain threshold. I don't see any reason it couldn't govern the accessory socket in the same way, but I do not know if it does.

Posted
by
samzenpuson Friday December 28, 2012 @12:34AM
from the gift-that-keeps-on-giving dept.

dotarray writes "One Colorado family received more than they'd bargained for this Christmas when they gave five-year-old Braydon Giles a pre-owned Nintendo 3DS that apparently still contained 'graphic images' from a previous owner. From the article: 'Refurbishing is an art, as well as a craft. The whole point is to make a gadget feel pristine, even when it used to be owned by a cult leader, a scout leader or an exhibitionist.
Sadly, someone in a Colorado GameStop stopped refurbishing before the job was complete.
So much so that 5-year-old Braydon Giles opened his Xmas gift — a Nintendo 3DS — and discovered images of naked people doing less than pristine things. As Channel 9 News tells it, Braydon showed the 3DS to his brother Bryton. He wanted his help to remove these weird pictures. '"

Posted
by
Soulskillon Wednesday December 05, 2012 @12:11AM
from the do-you-mean-smashing-your-head-isn't-safe dept.

SternisheFan sends this excerpt from ABC:
"On the heels of the latest NFL suicide, researchers announced today that 34 NFL players whose brains were studied suffered from CTE, a degenerative brain disease brought on by repeated hits to the head that results in confusion, depression and, eventually, dementia. The study was released just days after the murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher. It's not yet known what triggered Belcher's action, but they mirror other NFL players who have committed suicide. Researchers at Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy published the largest case series study of CTE to date (abstract), according to the center. Of the 85 brains donated by the families of deceased veterans and athletes with histories of repeated head trauma, they found CTE in 68 of them. Of those, 34 were professional football players, nine others played college football and six played only high school football. Of the 35 professional football players' brains donated, only one had no evidence of the disease, according to the study."
It's a good thing we protect our youth from conditions like this.

First, everyone tells me this about being a game dev. Everyone. Oh, and how it's not glamorous and some companies (read: most of them) treat you poorly.But once a week, we get a "what nobody tells you" about game devs article here or on Extra Credits or the Escapist or wherever.

Stop it.

Second, there is nothing interesting about procedurally generated anything any more. Diablo did this. The first one. In 1996. It can be a nice feature, but it's not noteworthy any more. The move from sprites to polygons was noteworthy for early titles like StarFox. But nobody is putting "polygon-based graphics" stickers on their game boxes today.